Monday, February 25, 2013

Today is my birthday, but I’m busy tonight so I had the 9th
Annual Wargaming birthday Bash last night. We played the Top Malo House
scenario out of the force on Force
on Force. In attendance were
Gary, Patrick and Other Tim again. Christian had said he was going to come but
then decided he was sick of playing with me and my stupid games… (or maybe his
family was sick…? anyway, it was something involving sickness!)

It’s been a while since I’ve played Force on Force and have
been trying to learn – and exclusively playing – Bolt Action, so I was a bit
messed up and totally forgot a few things… and was a bit confused about some of
the scenario stuff… and I didn’t quite finish up my Top Malo House buildings…
(and I cut my had while desperately trying to finish them up Sunday afternoon
after dance class!?). All that aside it turned out pretty okay…

Top Malo House, East Falkland,
31 May 1982

SITUATION

On May 30th, 1982, a Royal Marine Mountain and Arctic
Warfare Cadre OP reported the arrival of Argentine special forces in their
area. Concerned that the Argentines might set up their own OP on Mount Simon
from which they would be able to call in air strikes on the Marines advancing
towards Teal Inlet, they had to be removed. The Argentines holed up for the
night in an abandoned Sheppard house known as Top Malo House. ON the morning of
31 May 1982 a force of Royal Marine Mountain and Arctic Warfare Cadre troops
was inserted by helicopter to attack the Argentines position.

The scenario is straight out of
the Force
on Force main rules book (on
page 182). The British Marines have to dislodge the Argentines from and/or kill
or capture all of them. The Argentines have to hold the position or withdraw
their forces off the table and try to cause as many British Casualties as
possible.

FORCES

Elements of the Royal Marine
Mountain and Arctic Warfare Cadre

Assault Element

HQ Group

-Captain Boswell w/M16

-Signaler w/SLR

-Platoon Sergeant w/M16 and M79

RM Section

- Section Commander w/M16

Fire Team One

- Team Leader w/ SLR

- Grenadier w/ M16 and M79

- Rifleman w/M16

- Rifleman w/SLR

Fire Team Two

- Team Leader w/ SLR

- Gunner w/ L4A2 Bren

- Rifleman w/M16

- Rifleman w/SLR

Fire Support Group

RM Section

- Section Commander w/M16 and
M72 LAW

Fire Team One

- Team Leader w/ SLR and M72 LAW

- Grenadier w/ M16 and M79

- Gunner w/L7A2 GPMG

Fire Team Two

- Team Leader w/ SLR and M72 LAW

- Rifleman w/M16 and M72 LAW

- Sniper w/ L42A1

Elements of Argentine Commando
602

HQ Element

- Captain Verseci w/ FN-FAL

Commando 602 Assault Group

-Section Commander w/ FN-FAL

Fire Team One

- Team Leader w/ FN-FAL

- Grenadier w/ FN-FAL and Rifle
Grenaders

- 3x Riflemen w/ FN-FAL

Fire Team Two

- Team Leader w/ FN-FAL

- Grenadier w/ FN-FAL and Rifle
Grenaders

- 3x Riflemen w/ FN-FAL

Commando 602 Support Group

Fire Team One

- Team Leader w/ FN-FAL

- Grenadier w/ FN-FAL and Rifle
Grenaders

- Gunner w/ MAG58 GPMG

- Riflemen w/ FN-FAL

- Sniper w/ Weatherby .300
Magnum

THE GAME

Gary and Patrick took the
British and Other Tim took the Argentines.

(Remember: click on the pictures
for a bigger version)

Initial Deployment: in the
foreground is the RM Assault Element commanded by Patrick. Further back is the
fire Support Element commanded by Gary. All the Argentines are in the house.

Same thing different angle.

TURN ONE

The RM Fire Support Element
dashed up to the low ridge in front of them and the Assault Element held their
position.

In the End Phase the Argentines
spread out into the adjoining out buildings.

TURN TWO

Fire Team Two of the RM Support
Element fired on Argentines taking cover in the shed close, knockig them all
out of action before they could effectively return fire!

The other RM fire support team
fired on the Argentine commandos in the house – which drew fire the house and
the stable. They caused one casualty in the house and set Top Malo house on
fire...

...but the return fire from the Argentines took out all three British!

A pretty devastating first turn
of action!

TURN THREE

The British retained the
initiative.

The Argentine casualty in Top
Malo House turned out to be lightly wounded. The status of the RM GPMG team and
the Commandos in the Shed remained unknown as they were all down and no one was
present to check on them.

The RM command team started
moving over towards the RM GPMG team to see why they were not firing anymore.

The other Fire Support Team sat
on overwatch while the Assault Elements rushed the stable.

The fire from the two teams
effectively put the Argentines within out of action before they could
effectively return fire.

Yowzah!

The remaining Argentines
scarpered out the back of Top Malo House taking fire from the Fire Support team
on overwatch – causing another casualty – Other Tim assigned the wound to the
chap that was already wounded. He’d planned to abandon him in the house but
only took him along on my insistence that abandoning casualties was generally a
bad idea and that he wouldn’t slow them down on the first turn or two of
running as the first they would be leaving the house – which can only be done
as a Tactical Move- and crossing
the creek bed – which they would have to next turn – I had designated as
bad-going and could also only be done as a tactical move. As it turned out
Other Tim did have a use for the casualty – taking another bullet…

TURN FOUR

The British retained the
initiative.

The Argentine casualty turned
out to be seriously wounded now…

Top Malo House burns…

Beginning of Turn four.

The two RM Assault Elements advanced to the stable

One RM Assault fire team entered the building taking control of the
Argentine wounded within and firing upon the retreating top Malo House causing
two more casualties. The Argentines falied morale and their return fire was
ineffective.

The other fire team of the Assault Element ran
round the back of the stable hoping to flank the Argentines the following turn.

The remaining RM Fire Support
Element (in the distance there) would make a rapid move in the direction of the
shed full of Argentine commandoes they’d previously shot up.

The RM HQ element arrived at the
position of their wounded comrades on the low rise where they’d been shot down.

TURN FIVE

The British retained the
initiative.

Checking the Fire Suport Team
the HQ element found two to be Seriously Wounded (2 victory Points for the
Argentines!)and the other was
only Lightly Wounded. The Argentines casualties in the group fleeing out the
back of Top Malo House, one was Seriously Wounded and and the other Lightly
Wounded. The RM assault Element checked on the Argentines in the stable and
found one to be Killed in Action, one Seriously Wounded, and the remaining
three were Lightly Wounded.

Beginning of Turn Five

The RM assault team in the Stable fired on the REtreating ARgentines again, causing two more casualties.

The RM Fire Support Team rounded
the corner of the shed and spotting the Argentines in the open lit them up
causing two more casualties – only Captain Verseci remained standing at this
point…

The flanking RM assault element
can rounded the corner and spotted Verseci trying to flee…

…and they shot him down too…

The British took this game
scoring 8 victory points (5 for killing or capturing all Argentines by Turn Six
and 3 for clearing all argentines from the buildings beforeTurn Six). The Argentines weren’t shut
out, however; they scored two for the two serious injuries they caused the
British.

Among the Argentines there were
four killed in action, seven seriously wounded, and seven lightly wounded.

I really like force on force. There were a few things I
wasn’t totally clear about in the scenario and a few things I forgot.

The big thing I forgot was Fog of War! (Can’t believe I
forget that…)

The things I was confused about was whether we were to keep
track of LAW rockets? Was each person armed with them carry just one or a few
of them. We treated them as ATGMs and did a TQ test to see if they could fire
one each turn the wanted to fire – of course being TQ d10meant they pretty much always did –
which gave them some pretty overwhelming firepower.

Also I was confused about the building destruction rules as
it seems to be changed fromt eh standard rules which only allows weapons with
an unmodified 4D to attempt such things… and it got kind of awkward when a fire
team was firing two (or three) – plus a guy firing a rifle as the two (or
three) building destruction tests and the small arms fire all had to be worked
out separately… or perhaps they were supposed to only allowed to fire ONCE at a
target each turn i.e. one rocket OR small arms…? I completely ignored the M79
grenade launchers (as they were supposed to be allowed to make building
destruction tests as well – according to the scenario).

I suppose, had I been prepared a little further in advance I
could have asked about this stuff on the forum… ah well…

The scenario is super tough for the Argentines - they are
totally outclassed and outnumbered by the British (or at least British firing
volleys of LAW rockets) . There is no way they can "win" in the
traditional sense of defeating the British - they have to play to the victory
points and try to execute a fighting retreat - give up the position to the
British (which does give some VP to the Brits), but then deny the British
points by exiting troops off the table (and potentially gain some if they get
half off!) and then maybe try and pick up a few points by causing British
casualties…?

I had thought I might run this at ToonCon in the fall, but
now I’m not so sure if I'd run it for a convention (maybe a demo at a store…).
Playing the argentines could potentially be a bit of a drag as things can go
very (VERY!) bad for them very quickly! If I were to play the Argentines I
could really only have to players - one playing each of the British Elements.
If I had a british player playing each of the fire teams (4-5 players
potentially) and one team was wiped out in a lucky round of shooting (as
happened here), they’d pretty much be out of the game… With a player playing
both teams of the two elements (as we did) there’s always that second team to
contine playing if one gets wiped out…

I think the scenario wasn’t too far off the historical
outcome. The Argentines were beaten with most of them wounded and a few killed.
The British suffered a couple of casualties…

Coming soon on Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:

Well now that that’s over… what to do next… I’m kind of
jazzed to get going on some more modern stuff to play more Force on Force (and
I just got my hot little hands on Classified
- my little Birthday Present to myself! …among other things…).

Sunday, February 24, 2013

As a sort of warm up for the
Wargaming Birthday Bash we played a little game of Bolt Action on Saturday
Afternoon.

1941, East Front

SITUATION

The Germans have invaded and are
plunging deep into soviet territory, encircling vast swaths of the Soviet Red
Army, cutting them off and the annihilating them!

SCENARIO

Again we played SCENARIO 1:
ENVELOPMENT, straight out of theBolt
Action rulebook.

FORCES

Soviet Forces

1x Captain + Flag guy (Regular)

2x Senior Lieutenant + 1 runner
(Regular)

4x Rifle Squads (NCO w/SMG, DP +
Loader, 7 Riflemen – Regular)

1x Sniper and Spotter (Veteran)

1x Infantry Squad (NCO w/SMG, DP
+ Loader, 8 SMG-gunners – Regular)

2x MMG Team (Regular)

1x M-42 Light AT Gun (Regular)

1x Zis-2 76.3mm Field Gun
(Regular)

German Forces

1x Company Commander (Major) + 1
orderly w/ SMG (Veteran)

1x Senior Lieutenant + Sergeant
( Regular)

3x Infantry Squad (NCO w/SMG, MG34 + Loader, 7 Riflemen –
Regular)

1x MMG team (Regular)

1x Medium Mortar Team + Spotter
(Regular)

1x Stug IIID

1x Sniper and Spotter (Veteran)

THE GAME

Christian and Gary took the
Soviets and Other Tim and Patrick took the Germans.

(Remember: click on the pictures
for a bigger version)

Christian and Gary – the Soviets

Patrick and Other Tim – The
Germans

TURN ONE

Preliminary bombardment on the
Russian right the Sniper, the MMG team, and the Light AT gun each took 2 pins
and the AT gun lost one of it’s crew! The Rifle Squad only took one.

Over on the Soviet left, the
platon commander took 2 pins and the Rifle Squad took one. The rest (Howitzer
and MMG) were fine.

The Germans roll on.

The Germans brought on their
Stug, the mortar and observer, the sniper team and the Company Commander – the
remainder (the entire infantry platoon – commander and three full squads) were
held in reserve for some flank marching…

The soviets mostly spent the
first turn rallying.

TURN TWO

There was mostly maneuvering on
Turn Two

The Soviets on the German right
maneuvered around the hill a bit to stay out of LOS and the Zis went into
Ambush Mode – should the Stug (or any other target) roll into view.

Over on the other flank the rest
of the Soviets laid in wait as well…

The remaining Soviets (two rifle
squads, the SMG squad, a Platoon and Company Commander) all remained in reserve
to see where the real German attack would develop.

The German Stug rumbled forward,
The rest advanced through the woods to get into a firing position.

TURN THREE

The German MMg team fired on the
Soviet MMg team causing a casualty. The Soviet MMG team in turn failed to
receive an order to (I think…) return fire – so they just went to ground and
cowered as bombs from the German mortar started to drop around them (with
little effect – still ranging in).

The German sniper team moved
into position. The Soviet Rifle squad rushed to the crest of the hill and fired
on said sniper team – a “nigh impossible shot” (needing sixes, followed by
sixes) hit alt least once, maybe twice, but failed to cause any casualties.

With targets now presenting
themselves the Stug rolled up and fired on the soviet Rifle Squad causing two
casualties!

A German Squad arriving on the
flank also shot up the Soviet Squad causing further casualties.

At some point Finnegan joined us
and offered to roll dice for us…

TURN FOUR

Everybody came piling in out of
reserve – or flanking maneuvers…

I’m not a fan of the flanking.
It’s just silly.

Russians on the the other flank
holding tight just in case that last German squad turns out to be flanking on
that other side of the table…

We played on the full table
(~5’x7’) but almost all of the action took place in a 2’x3’ corner of the
table…

The Germans shot up one Russian
squad causing four casualties, including the squad leader. The Zis fired at
some Germans causing two casualties and a couple of pins. Another Gemran Squad
fired on another Soviet Sqad causing two casualtie. One of the Soviet Squads
actually tried to charge into close combat, but failed to get motivated enough.
The Russian MG fired. Antoehr Soviet Squad fired and caused four casualties –
causing a morale check – which failed – first German Squad gone (and 2 Victory
Points for the Russians!). Then German Platoon command advanced and fired on a
Russian Squad at point blank range causing two casualties – ncluding another
squad leader….. The German mortar missed again (really... target rich
environment… missed…). German MMG couldn’t hit anything. The German Sniper
however took out a DP gunner. The Stug advanced – causing the Soviet AT gun
(waiting in ambush since turn one) to FIRE! But it missed… The Stug also missed
whatever it was shooting at…

TURN FIVE

And just when you though things
were just getting too silly…

The soviets finally realized the
Germans had concentrated their attack on a 2’ frontage of the (7’) table and
began to try and redeploy their stranded elements over on the other side.

The Germans that came on in the
first turn, sitting in the woods…

A German squad fired on the
Soviet MMG causing another casualty – which prompted a morale check – which was
failed and the remaining crewman fled the field of battle (1 Victory Point for
the Germans!)

The German Platoon Command attempted to Close Assault the remains of a Soviet rifle squad…

…it didn’t work out so well for them (2 more Victory Points for the Soviets!)

The Stug rolled forward and
fired on something… and missed… then the remaining Soviets in the squad that
had been assaulted by the German Platoon Command attempted to Close Assault the
Stug… but failed to do anything…

I don’t know what’s going on
here… it looks a mess… The Soviet SMG squad seems to have finally come out of
reserve, as has the last of the German flanking squads….

The (immobilized) Stug was the
only German element anywhere close to the Soviet deployment zone (though I think the German Company Commander and maybe the sniper team may have left cover and sprinted for the Russian end of the table, but just couldn't make if far enough to score points...), and none had
gotten off the Soviet edge… so The Soviet scored EIGHT Victory Points, the
Germans only scored one…

This was my least favourite game
of Bolt Action so far. Time to ignore the canned scenarios and point values,
come up with some rules for entrenchments, and see if this game can work for a
sensible scenario…

Coming soon on Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:

Another game report – The 9th Annual Wargaming
Birthday Bash – we played the Top Malo House scenario out of the force on Force
on Force, but that will have to wait until tomorrow (or, rather, later today....) as I'm way to tired and it's way to late...

Thursday, February 21, 2013

I think this may be the biggest
batch of 28mm figures I’ve ever painted… usually I work on squads of ten or so…
sometimes units of fifteen… maybe twenty… I have done a unit of thirty-two once
or twice… But this week I sat down with fifty (50!) Mujahideen and painted them
all without being distracted… or finishing up half and leaving the rest for
later…

I’ve been on a bit of an Afghan
kick lately. I watched Afghan
Luke, the Beast, and Charlie Wilson’s War (all for the first time)
recently. I also dug out the 9th Company and watched it again. I’ve
also been reading Ted Rall’s to To
Afghanistan and Back and the Osprey Histories book on the Soviet-Afghan War and listening to Morgan Spurlock’s Where
in the World Is Osama Bin Laden on CD… and I have a few others that
have risen to the top of my “to read” pile…

These guys are ready to defend their country (and the
faith!) from infidel invaders! (There are additional ones from Mongrel and
Eureka as well as a few from The
Assault Group and Devil Dog Design)

I need to fix up my generic
mud-brick village and make some more terrain…

Coming soon on Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:

I need to switch gears and build Top Malo House if I'm going to run that scenario on Sunday!? I guess if I run out of time on that I could always have an asymetric engagement in the 'stans...

I should have a couple game reports up over the weekend as I'm planning to play another game of Bolt Action on Saturday and then the 9th Annual Wargaming Birthday Bash (Force on Force) is on Sunday! Huzzah!

Sunday, February 17, 2013

The whole force (including a few others I'd ordered and painted previously)

Unfortunately ordering from Eureka USA most of the ranges are only sold in complete sets of one of each pose... which doesn't necessarily add up to anything resembling any sort of TO&E... But with what I have here I can more or less field an under-strength platoon (what platoon in the field was EVER at full strength anyway, right?). Insofar as I can tell there was only ever 6 or 7 that dismounted from a BMP or BTR, so these aren't terribly under-strength.

First Section.

Second Section

(that blurry bit in front of the MG-Gunner is a snowflake blowing past... There was a bit more snow falling, and blowing around, this morning...)

Third Section - including the platoons designated marksman.

Platoon command. Serzhant and Leytenant pointing. Plus a spare MG and Sniper - perhaps the Serzhant is a good scrounger and "aquired" these extra items for the platoon - they could be added to any of the other sections for some extra support.

Some chemical defence or engineer types... the could be attached to the platoon if need be...?

Another attachment - the Sagger (I can't really call it a "team" as it's just the one guy....) - when a slightly longer ranged (slightly harder) punch is needed to deal with armour (or bunkers?).

of course these guys could be Ferried about in my BTR-60s. Perhaps I should have taken a picture with them...

Perhaps it was a bit silly getting these guys in chemical defence suits. I have no other forces so equiped to deal with an NBC environement - so these guys might look a little silly running around in their suits expecting to be gassed when no one else is...

Ah well...

I suppose I could use them a Soviet zombie containment team...?

Coming soon on Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:

I need to get that model of Top Malo House built as it’s
just a week away from the 9th Annual Wargaming Birthday Bash (where
I was planning to run the Top Malo House scenario from Force
on Force - so I’d best get cracking
on that…

After that…? So many project so close to completion that I’d
just like to finish up… but which one FIRST!? French? Afghans? WW2 Soviets or
Paras?